Magic and Sanity
by Phoenix16
Summary: Harry is locked in a muggle asylum, suspected of murder. He is able to prove to muggles that a little magic exists everywhere, and it all culminates in the defet of Voldemort. H/H-PLEASE R/R!
1. The asylum

Harry and all other recognizable characters belong to J.K. Rowling. All others are added by necessity and belong to moi.  
  
Enjoy, and please review!  
  
Chapter One  
  
Harry drummed his fingers on the white table and glanced around at the white walls. His starched white uniform clung uncomfortably. He slouched in his chair and sighed. The entire room, including the air, was completely sterile.  
  
"Why am I here?" he asked irritably, breaking the silence. The man across the table from him, a muggle, raised an eyebrow and looked him over. He was balding, and the fluorescent lights of the room reflected off of his brow and glared painfully at Harry.  
  
"Mr. Potter, do you still believe that you are a...wizard?"  
  
Harry rolled his eyes "I did".  
  
"And, Mr. Potter, do you believe that you have the ability to use magic?"continued the doctor.  
  
"I kicked the habit."he replied with sarcasm.  
  
"That does not answer the question, Mr. Potter"  
  
"Yes. Okay? Yes, I can do magic. Is that so hard to believe?" Harry demanded, raising his voice.  
  
There was a pause as the white-haired doctor looked over some papers in a white folder.  
  
"Mr. Potter, neither of your parents are living...correct?"  
  
"That's right." Harry muttered in disgust.  
  
There was another pause.  
  
"Could the death of your parents, Mr. Potter, have anything to do with the aggression displayed yesterday in the streets of London?"  
  
Harry looked annoyed at the question "Aside from the fact that I was about to overtake the killer of my parents and save the lives of countless people...Not at all."  
  
It was the doctor's turn for irritation. "Mr. Potter, do you not think that the murder of your mother and father is a matter to be settled by the police?"  
  
A laugh was Harry's only response.  
  
"Mr. Potter, I am going to perscribe for you a mild anti-psychotic. You will remain here until your court date. Hopefully by then your story will have changed."  
  
Harry watched the doctor slap the folder closed and stomp out of the room.  
  
The door locked automatically behind him, encasing Harry in what felt like a tomb of sterility and death.  
  
"Dammit!" Harry screamed, kicking one of the padded white walls.  
  
There was a sigh from the corner of the room. Harry whirled around, and smiled.  
  
Hermione had apparated into the cell, and was standing in the corner looking irritable. "Mr. Potter, just exactly what did you think you were doing?" she asked coldly.  
  
Harry walked over to her. "Hermione, what are you doing here? You could be caught...". His sentence was abruptly cut short as Hermione pulled Harry into a kiss. He leaned into her, nuzzling her into the corner, responding eagerly to her every touch.  
  
Since leaving Hogwarts two years ago, Hermione had grown tall and curved. Her hair had calmed itself and her face had become more defined. Her cinnamon brow eyes examined him carefully. Hermione Granger was attractive. An unconventional beauty, but a beauty nonetheless, and Harry had found her extremely hard to resist when they both began working for the Ministry as Aurors. Ron, of course was as wild about her as he had ever been, but he worked for a more governmental end of the Ministry. Although very high up in his department, he and Hermione rarely interacted. The relationship between Harry and Hermione was therefore kept soley between them as Hermione made up her mind which of the two males interested in her she would pick. Harry knew it would eventually come to be Ron, but he decided to savor the female attention while it lasted.  
  
"Harry, what were you thinking, making a show in front of all of those Muggles? Look at you here, locked up in this asylum like some type of animal" Harry bowed to her scolding, but was strongly aware of her hand running lightly over his chest.  
  
"Hermione, you know!" He retorted "Voldemort...he was RIGHT THERE. He was about to lash out on the muggles. It would have been hell on earth. I had to intervene!"  
  
"Harry, you have created the largest disaster in the history of the Ministry of Magic"  
  
"I seem to be rather good at disasters, Hermione. My forte, I guess."  
  
"Why didn't you let Voldemort do what he had come to do without interruption? That would have given the Ministry time to dispatch help and we could have ended it all without a fuss."  
  
"Waiting would have cost lives, Hermione"  
  
"It's a moral call, Harry." she said with a shrug.  
  
The day before, Harry had been in the subway tunnels of the Muggle London Underground when he nearly collapsed with the searing pain of his scar. He looked up blindly, and gazed glass eyed before him at the dark figure of Voldemort. The Dark Lord was standing on the stair leading down to the tunnel, surrounded by a cluster of cloaked death-eaters. Hundreds of Muggles bustled back and fourth, but Harry knew that Voldemort saw him...was able to single his face out amongst the hundreds of other humans.  
  
Voldemort had grown formidable, almost to his full strength. He had been targeting Muggles as his victims, feeding off of their naieve power. If nothing was done soon, Harry had the fear in his gut that the second reign of darkness was at hand.  
  
Harry had watched Voldemort raise his wand high above the crowd, who suddenly seemed to notice his presence, the glowing red eyes sunk into the snakelike face. Voldemort contorted his thin lips into a foreboding smile, and Harry knew at that moment that it was now or never.  
  
"Avada Kedarva" Harry screamed, drawing his wand from his back pocket and aiming it straight at the dark lord. The turned their gaze towards him.  
  
Harry had yelled the curse a moment too late, and the flash of green light from the wand of Voldemort made him painfully aware of his tardiness. His scar stung and he collapsed unconscious. When he came to, he had found himself on a streacher being loaded into an ambulance.  
  
"He's awake"a voice above him said.  
  
"What is your name sir?" Another voice asked  
  
"Harry...Potter" He had moaned, delerious from the pain.  
  
"Harry, do you know what happened?" the first voice asked.  
  
Harry suddenly jolted upright "Did...did Voldemort get away? I was so bloody close! What...what happed? I don't know what happened after the curse, I fell unconscious. "  
  
"Lay down Harry!" said the second voice, and Harry felt a hand on his chest pressing him back down firmly.  
  
"Who is Voldemort?" An third voice asked, barely audible over the sirens.  
  
"The...dark wizard...he is responsible...I almost stopped him...I'm an auror, you see..."Harry said, passing out again.  
  
When he awoke for the second time, he found himself where he was at the moment, locked in the asylum.  
  
He explained all of this firmly to Hermione, who looked at him as if he had completely screwed up.  
  
"'Mione...you've got to understand...I was just doing my job...I tried to explain...they suspect ME for killing those people in the subway tunnel. They think I'm crazy. I don't know what to do".  
  
"I believe you, Harry. But it's going to be a tough job explaining it to the ministry. Things are insane right now. Everybody's scared since Voldemort's rise to power. This is just icing on the cake, babe." Hermione said.  
  
Harry examined the tiled white floor.  
  
Hermione lightly kissed his scar, which she knew was the most sensitive part of his whole anatomy. Harry nearly fell to his knees with the pleasure derived from her simple touch.  
  
"Let's get you out of here, Harry"  
  
"No! I can't leave. I'll never be able to show my face in muggle London again"  
  
"The Ministry will handle it. Anyway, you're no good to anybody locked up in this padded cell, especially me." She said with a wicked smile, grabbing the crook of his arm.  
  
Anyone who had looked into the white tomb at that moment would have seen two people vanish.  
  
Would they then believe in magic?  
  
  
  
To be continued...Keep reading! 


	2. The delimma

Chapter Two  
  
Harry sat back casually in the chair. He should have been upset...he should have been tense and anxious and worried, but he wasn't. He couldn't manage to be. Thoughts of the previous evening in Hermione's flat made him feel as if all was forgiven and everything was going to be fine. His imagination took him on a journey from her lips, through her neck...and chest, he sighed...down lower...he ran his mouth across all parts of her, he happily recalled. Everywhere.  
  
He was barely aware of the newspaper that was slapped before him.  
  
He saw Ron speaking, but registered nothing that he said.  
  
It took a forceful slap on the back for Harry to come to and pay attention.  
  
"Harry! You haven't heard a thing I've said. I've got to announce something to the entire wiziarding world about what went on, and you haven't heard a bloody thing I've said!"  
  
Ron looked flustered, and stared desperately at Harry.  
  
"I've told my story, Ron. What more can I say?"  
  
Ron sighed and sat down next to Harry. Harry looked down at the paper, which was that days edition of the London Times-Dispatch. The headline read simply:  
  
"SUBWAY TUNNEL TRADEGY: FIFTEEN DEAD AFTER MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION" Harry skimmed the article. The last lines read: "One suspect, a Mr. Harry Potter, was taken into custody after several eyewitnesses noted him responsible. Mr. Potter was placed in the St. Andrews Psychiatric Hospital after claiming that he was a wiziard able to perform magic. Mr. Potter, the only suspect so far, escaped late last evening and is yet to be found." Below that line, a portrait of himself looking very confused.  
  
Harry stared silently at the paper.  
  
"Ron...I'm sorry. I just thought...I was doing the right thing"  
  
"Harry," Ron said "What I need from you now is advice. The Ministry has no reason NOT to suspect you! You could end up in Azkzban, Harry...for the abuse of muggles! We need some type of proof that you did not do it before you get arrested and have to go there. I'm worried about you, and I'll pull whatever strings it takes, but there's only so much..."  
  
Harry looked into Ron's sympathetic features. His red hair beamed at him, and his warm brown eyes had an expression of deep sincerity.  
  
Harry felt a pang of guilt for his actions with Hermione the evening prior.  
  
He reached out and grabbed Ron's hand and squeezed it "Thank you, my friend. I suggest that the best thing for the ministry to do is to let it slide. Apparently the muggles see it as some type of terrorist act, and actual magic is their last suspect. They will take the gruesome over the fantastic any day." Harry sighed.  
  
"You'll be a fugitive in the muggle world, though, Harry. Everyone knows your face now." Stated Ron.  
  
"I really have no need for the muggle world anyway, Ron."  
  
"But you do, Harry. That's where Voldemort has been making his attacks. It's your responsibility."  
  
Harry looked around the office and thought. It was simple and small, good enough, though. Ron worked for public relations between the Ministry and the masses. It was a good job, and Ron was good at it. Harry wished he could say so much for what he himself did.  
  
"I suppose there's no way that all of these headlines can be erased" he muttered absently  
  
"Not unless the Ministry performs a memory charm on every subscriber to the Times-Dispatch" Ron replied.  
  
"Well, then. I guess that I'm going to have to go back there and sort everything out...Prove my innocence. After all, it is innocent until proven guilty. Strange though...there's no mention of You-know-who at all in this article, and I know everyone in that tunnel saw him!"  
  
Ron Looked puzzled. "Did they?"  
  
"Yes, I'm absolutely positive."  
  
"I wonder..."  
  
"What?"  
  
Ron lit up "Perhaps this is a desperate ploy on behalf of You-know-who, Harry! What if he knows that YOU are the only person that can overpower him, his only worthy opponent. And since he can't kill you in the world of magic, He'll set you up to look like you were the one responsible for a horrible crime in the Muggle world! That would explain why he's been choosing muggles as his victims. He's trying to lure you, Harry. Make you look guilty so the Muggles will take you out and eleminate a step for him! He knows that you have no choice but to go back to London."  
  
"That's Right, Ron. Before the explosion, Voldemort looked directly at me. He knew I was there! He set the whole thing up!" Harry said excitedly.  
  
"Yes...it's a...a..." Ron searched for the right phrase.  
  
"A catch-22, Ron. Stuck between a rock and a hard place...up the creek..." Harry moaned "What am I going to do? You're right, Ron! But how do we fix things this time?"  
  
Hermione, who had been sitting silently next to Harry for the duration of the conversation, finally spoke up "I have a solution".  
  
At the sound of her voice, Ron went deep red and tried looking away, but could not. Harry felt guilty once again, but also felt a familiar surge of desire as memories rekindled in the back of his mind.  
  
"You do?" Ron asked, trying to keep his composure.  
  
"I think so. We could very easily send Harry into the muggle world disguised."  
  
"Disguised as who?" they both inquired.  
  
"If you something else goes wrong, I wouldn't want somebody else to be banished from London! It's difficult." Harry said.  
  
'That's why we don't change you into somebody else" Hermoione said flatly, as if her response made perfect sense. Ron and Harry exchanged glances as Hermione removed a vial of clear liquid from her cloak and delicately placed it on the table before them.  
  
"You'll still be Harry Potter, " she said with a smile "Just a few years...younger"  
  
  
  
Keep reading! More will be up soon! 


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